Slashdot Mirror
World's Most Powerful Laser
mattlary writes "The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that the University of Rochester plans on building the world's most powerful laser. The plans include upgrading the University's Omega laser with a pair of petawatt lasers. Sounds a lot like Real Genius to me."
But can you strap it to the head of a frikkin' shark?
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"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
Is built out of many larger lasers!
PROPS TO GABE AND SANTA
.. without the pool party though.
You never know...
"Do you have that dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
we put that "la-zer" on the moon ?
PETA would never put there name on something to harm the animals, especially the fuzzy ones.
With this "laser" the University of Rochester might hold the world ransom for.... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
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One by one the penguins steal my sanity...
Mini-me, stop humping the "LASER"
You may not agree with what I'm saying but I'll kill you for my right to say it
Time to count the number of austin powers posts...
We should collaborate....we build the Big Fuckin' Mirror, and together, UR and RIT can give UB the what's up.
Such a machine could only have one viable purpose.
To carve your name in the MOON!
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
UR plans to build world's most powerful laser
... I'll show them all!"
By Matthew Daneman
Democrat and Chronicle
(May 9, 2003) -- One burst from the University of Rochester's Omega laser heats up its target to 100 million degrees Celsius in a quest to duplicate the power of the sun.
But the world's most powerful fusion research laser is about to get a lot more powerful.
Construction could start as soon as early July on a $70 million addition of a pair of petawatt lasers to UR's Laboratory for Laser Energetics Omega facility on East River Road.
The incredibly powerful petawatt would be the most destructive device in existence, capable of vaporizing an entire planet.
Researchers have a broad array of plans for the petawatt, including using bursts from it to disintegrate major landmarks.
Nuclear fusion is what powers stars, including the sun, and is the principle behind hydrogen bombs. Scientists have been trying for decades to replicate and control fusion for use as a cheap, pollution-free power source.
"They mocked my research!" said lab director Robert McCrory. "But I'll show them
UR is planning for an 82,000-square-foot addition to the back of the laser lab. The town of Brighton Planning Board is having a special meeting at 5:15 p.m. May 19 at the laser lab. The meeting will include a tour for board members and neighboring residents and a demand for cash payments to stave off their imminent destruction.
UR estimates the lab could be fully operational in about four years. When Rebel forces attempt to destroy the shield generators protecting the installation, UR will reveal that it is already fully operational.
The U.S. Department of Energy has put up $13 million so far for the expansion plans, and UR expects to see $37 million more over the next few years. The university is putting $20 million of its own into the construction.
A petawatt laser could generate a pulse of up to a million billion watts of power, several hundred times more powerful than the Omega, and would enable the lab to hold the entire world hostage, said Steven Loucks, engineering director for the laser lab.
"This will be the most intense laser ever built," said Craig Sangster, a senior scientist at the laser lab.
With the petawatt, UR would leap into the emerging and promising field of "fast ignition" fusion. Hypothetically, a burst from the petawatt would serve as the metaphorical spark plug, igniting a fuel source and setting off a fusion reaction, destroying an entire planet. Researchers also foresee using the petawatt bursts to "see" into the plasma generated when the Omega laser array is fired at unsuspecting tourists, "which we'd love to do now, but we can't," Sangster said.
And the petawatt will help in one of the lab's primary jobs -- "stockpile stewardship" of the nation's nuclear weapon arsenal, Loucks said. The vast majority of the lab's $49 million annual operating budget comes from the Energy Department, which pays for study of death rays now that the nation no longer does nuclear testing.
The laser lab upgrade will add no more than a handful of jobs to the facility, which employs close to 250 people in stupid black helmets with wheels on them. But the petawatt will help ensure that federal money continues to flow to Rochester, McCrory said.
Added Lousch: "Do not be too proud of this technological terror you have constructed, for the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force."
The lab contributes about $20 million to the local economy, according to UR estimates.
One of the petawatt laser's main jobs will likely be to supplement the $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility being built now at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Sangster said. Livermore's 1.8 megajoule laser -- with power capacity far beyond UR's -- is expected to go online in about five years. Researchers will undoubtedly use UR's laser lab to "destroy all those who mocked" their research before annihilating Livermore, he said.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
You know, seeing as how they already have a gigantic frickin' laser, I'm not sure I'd want to be the one to say "No" to them....
"So, you see, the citizens have some concerns about the facility, and..."
(A switch is flipped, a quiet whirring is heard.)
"Umm... approval granted."
"My apologies if my information is out of date, I quit my PhD in plasma physics 4 years ago..."
That's still more recent than the last time I did plasma physics... which was never.
"...fusion certainly doesn't produce any "conventional" pollution."
You mean like cows? Good. One nuclear fart and we're all goners.
Can you mount it on the moon and call it a "DEATH STAR"?
Repeal the DMCA!
Damn dude, you know something called the "Omega Laser" is just doomed to end up malfunctioning and destroying the world. It sounds like something that Dr. Robotnik would build...
I attend the University of Rochester, and I have to say, this kinda of bothers me. . . I mean, what if I am taking an optics course and I get the teacher really angry durring Laser Lab?
What's to prevent me from being vaporized? huh?
Modular Redundancy--Because 4 out of 5 Nodes agree
They aren't low power. There are 60 beams on the laser with an average Omega beam being around 30cm in diameter and assuming 1TW pulse/beam you would be exposed to several Gigawatts per square cm. Im guessing now, but I would think if you were exposed to the infrared beam(before it gets converted to UV) you would be very severely burned but if you were hit with the UV side it might not be so bad since it is so readily absorbed by the upper layer of your skin it might just blow off a few top layers. I definitly would not want to try it though, there are scary looking burn marks all over the laser target chamber and walls of the containment room.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"